Backpay on pension for women

cordy7

My mum passed away a couple of years ago and then I saw about women possibly missing out on some pension if they were a certain age. I read it fully and also realised, as my mum was poorly, a lot was going on after my father passed away within weeks of going into hospital, we had never claimed the extra top up she was entitled to on her state pension after my dad passed away. A letter had come to fill in I recall to get it. I rang the pension people last year, told them everything relevent to it and waited. As her next of kin you can have the money they missed out, if there is any to be had. I moved and told them my new details and that I had already asked them to look into it. The woman tried to speak as if it was a new enquiry about underpaid pension. I understand there a 1000s of cases to look into, but it has been a year since I asked them to look into it. Has anyone else dealt with getting back possible underpaid pension? How long did it take? 

littlemissbossy

My husband enquired regarding his late mother in November 2020, so almost two years ago,

I know they will have had lots of queries but I think that's pretty pants really.

Brie

Especially bad as women generally have less occupational pension provision compared to men and live longer so need the money longer.  I wonder how many women have been pushed into poverty because of this.

cordy7

littlemissbossy said:

My husband enquired regarding his late mother in November 2020, so almost two years ago,

I know they will have had lots of queries but I think that's pretty pants really.

That is shocking your husband has been waiting nearly 2 years for a reply! If they wanted money back you know it would be demanded asap with a time limit. Yes, there have been lots of queries, but people deserve their backpay and especially now those 1000s would be a lifeline with increased costs. If I was your husband I'd ring them up and complain about it. Thank you for your reply to this as well. I hope you hear from them soon about it.

littlemissbossy

cordy7 said:

littlemissbossy said:

My husband enquired regarding his late mother in November 2020, so almost two years ago,

I know they will have had lots of queries but I think that's pretty pants really.

That is shocking your husband has been waiting nearly 2 years for a reply! If they wanted money back you know it would be demanded asap with a time limit. Yes, there have been lots of queries, but people deserve their backpay and especially now those 1000s would be a lifeline with increased costs. If I was your husband I'd ring them up and complain about it. Thank you for your reply to this as well. I hope you hear from them soon about it.

We've contacted them many times, they're very polite but nobody will put you through to "the department".

cordy7

littlemissbossy said:

cordy7 said:

littlemissbossy said:

My husband enquired regarding his late mother in November 2020, so almost two years ago,

I know they will have had lots of queries but I think that's pretty pants really.

That is shocking your husband has been waiting nearly 2 years for a reply! If they wanted money back you know it would be demanded asap with a time limit. Yes, there have been lots of queries, but people deserve their backpay and especially now those 1000s would be a lifeline with increased costs. If I was your husband I'd ring them up and complain about it. Thank you for your reply to this as well. I hope you hear from them soon about it.

We've contacted them many times, they're very polite but nobody will put you through to "the department".

Try to ring again and say can you fasttrack it as urgent. I rang the other day about any update and the very nice woman told me she would put it through as urgent, but "no timescale can be given". Bit of a hope then reality with that. 

sevenhills

littlemissbossy said:

We've contacted them many times, they're very polite but nobody will put you through to "the department".

I always prefer to send an email or get it in writing.

littlemissbossy

cordy7 said:

littlemissbossy said:

cordy7 said:

littlemissbossy said:

My husband enquired regarding his late mother in November 2020, so almost two years ago,

I know they will have had lots of queries but I think that's pretty pants really.

That is shocking your husband has been waiting nearly 2 years for a reply! If they wanted money back you know it would be demanded asap with a time limit. Yes, there have been lots of queries, but people deserve their backpay and especially now those 1000s would be a lifeline with increased costs. If I was your husband I'd ring them up and complain about it. Thank you for your reply to this as well. I hope you hear from them soon about it.

We've contacted them many times, they're very polite but nobody will put you through to "the department".

Try to ring again and say can you fasttrack it as urgent. I rang the other day about any update and the very nice woman told me she would put it through as urgent, but "no timescale can be given". Bit of a hope then reality with that. 

Ah yes, we've had similar conversations too.

Pollycat

Might this be something your MP could help with?
One year and 2 years seems to be far too long to wait for a response, regardless of the problems caused by covid.

cordy7

Pollycat said:

Might this be something your MP could help with?
One year and 2 years seems to be far too long to wait for a response, regardless of the problems caused by covid.

2 years is crazy, I agree, but we got stuck with covid back logs on everything. 1 year is annoying for my enquiry, but as posted by myself and littlemissbossy, we get told no timescale can be given. There are 1000s upon 1000s of women who were underpaid in some form or another and processing all that will take time. It is frustrating though and if it is money you owe they want it within 4 weeks. I had to repay carer's allowance, my mum went into respite for awhile which turned into going into care, so know how fast they want you to repay anything.

Pollycat

You could send an email to your MP, it will take little time and cost you nothing.